European junior champion among participating
youngsters in IAF Zepter Masterclass
6 March
1998 - With less than a week to go before the IAF Zepter
Masterclass, 30 promising young athletes from around the
world (19 men and 11 women) have confirmed they will attend
Monaco’s Stade Louis II for the lesson of a lifetime from
four of the world’s best athletes - Sergey Bubka, Stephane
Diagana, Wilson Kipketer and Merlene Ottey. Among the hand-picked
group of youngsters are a reigning European Junior gold medallist
(Lars Bergeling - Pole Vault), two European Junior silver
medallists (Pavel Guerassimov - Pole Vault and Alina Ripanu -
400m hurdles) a US champion and Panamerican Junior double gold
medallist (Kinshasa Davis - 200m/4x100m) and an Arab Junior gold
medallist (Shiman El Hanifi - 200m/4x100m) as well as a number of
other internationals.
Included on the weekend’s schedule are:
Video presentation by master athletes
Question and answer session
Practical training sessions
Table tennis tournament
Social activities
The IAF Zepter Masterclass is a collaboration between the International Athletic Foundation, whose Honorary President Prince Albert of Monaco will be extending his personal welcome to all participants, the kitchenware company Zepter, which sponsors the annual Zepter Herculis Golden League meeting and the Zepter Indoor 1998 Athletic Meeting in Tampere and the Monegasque Athletic Federation.
The Master Class groups, with their leaders, are as follows (dates of birth and personal bests included when known).
Sprints - Merlene Ottey
Siska Bruyckere 1981 BEL 100m (11.93)
Atia Weekes 1980 CAN 100m (11.76)
Fani Chalkia 1979 GRE 400m (59.17)
Roy Bailey 1979 JAM 100m (10.40)
Shiman El Hanifi 1979 MAR 100m (11.94)
Mailis Bouchard 1982 MON 100m (12.98)
J Ekah Uduak 1980 NGR 100m (11.27)
Davis Kinshasa 1979 USA 200m (22.09)
Middle distances - Wilson Kipketer
Farid Hussain 1981 BHR 800m/1500m
Richard Pell 1979 SWE 800m (1:49.76)
Lars Rohbrandt 1979 DEN 5000m (15:33)
Jaime Jove ESP 800m/1500m
Henry Rop 1979 KEN 800m (1:49.0)
Emmanuel De Lorenzi 1979 MON 800m (1:59.8)
Alina Ripanu 1981 ROM 400m/800m (53.10/2:05.40)
Hurdles - Stephane Diagana
Nikolay Roykov BUL 110mh (14.07)
Matthew Elias 1979 GBR 400mh (51.71)
Giorgio Berdini 1979 ITA 60mh (8.02)
Sebastien Rousset 1979 MON 110mh (14.38)
Andrej Murn 1980 SLO 110mh (14.06)
Simone Oberer 1980 SUI 100mh (14.40)
Pole Vault - Sergey Bubka
James Filshie 1981 AUS 4.70m
Adam Ptacek 1980 CZE 5.40m
Marie Poissonnier 1979 FRA 4.15m
Lars Borgeling 1979 GER 5.50m
Katalin Donath HUN 4.00m
Jerome Fressart 1980 MON 4.20m
Jakub Szymczak 1978 POL 5.15m
Pavel Guerassimov 1979 RUS 5.50m
Oleg Mikhailishin 1977 UKR 5.20m
Master Biographies
Merlene Ottey of Jamaica has won a record 14 World Championship medals in a international career stretching back to 1979;
Wilson Kipketer of Denmark holds the indoor and outdoor world record for 800m (1:42.67 and 1:41.11) and is the reigning World Champion for both disciplines too. He was crowned Athlete of the Year at the 1997 IAF World Athletics Gala;
Stephane Diagana of France is the reigning world champion for 400m hurdles and is also European record holder with 47.37;
Sergey Bubka of the Ukraine has won six consecutive World Championship titles (dating back to 1983) and an Olympic title in 1984. He has set 17 world records outdoors and 10 indoor world records since 1984. He was voted Sportsman of the Year for 1997 by L’Equipe newspaper.
